Tomorrow at Seven

Tomorrow at Seven (1933)

** (out of 4)

Forgotten mystery/horror film has a town being stalked by a mysterious killer known as the "Black Ace". The Black Ace lets his victims know that he's going to kill them so a novel writer (Chester Morris) and a couple detectives (Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins) try and catch him before the next victim, which is set to die at seven. This is yet another in the never-ending run of "old dark house" films that were incredibly popular during this period of time. There's no question that every studio out there could turn out one because all you needed were some actors and a house. The biggest problem with this one is that the screenplay is so bad that it will really let you down because it wastes a pretty good cast. The opening murder sequence is pretty effective as director Enright does a good job with the murder. The scene is shot extremely well and is pretty creative in its own right. There are a couple murders that happen in the film and if you put any thought to them you'll see that they really don't make any sense nor does a couple other events that happen. The screenplay writes the two detective characters are idiots, which is okay in my book as this genre always had comedy running throughout it but the writing isn't strong enough to get any real laughs. McHugh and Jenkins were terrific character actors at Warner so they certainly can hold their own against anyone but they get very few shots at delivering any laughs. Morris is pretty much wasted as well as he stands around either thinking, acting tough or trying to be charming. His performance is good but it gets buried behind the bland character. He does have a few good moments early on with Vivienne Osborne. Henry Stephenson, Grant Mitchell and Gun Robinson round out the cast. The film has that good opening sequence and the final few minutes are quite good as well as we learn who the killer is. I must admit that I enjoyed how everything played out in the end but you can't help but wish more thought went into the middle segment of the film. At only 62-minutes the film flies by but in the end we're left with yet another disappointment in the genre.